1. Field of Invention
The claimed invention relates to contactless cards used in the financial, personal identification and security industries. More specifically, it relates to a card or token with embedded circuit lock technology which is activated by flexing the card for contactless transfers of information.
2. Description of the Related Art.
Cards used in the financial and personal identification and security business have had a dramatic impact on commerce. Traditional cards have a magnetic strip embedded thereon which can be read by inserting the card into a reader, or by swiping the card past a reader. Modern developments to cards have added electronic features such as contactless data transfer, electronic data displays and dual interface cards. Contactless cards employ passive radio frequency identification (“RFID”) technology to transmit secure account information to a radio frequency (“RF”) receiver for payment.
A “passive” RFID circuit is one that does not contain a battery, that is, the power to read the RFID tag is supplied by the reader. When radio waves from the reader are encountered by a passive RFID tag, the coiled antenna within the tag forms a magnetic field. The tag draws power from it, energizing the circuits in the tag. The tag then sends the information encoded in the tag's memory. Additionally, display circuits have been added to financial cards which provide one time passwords (“OTP”), display the current financial balance on the card or display bonus points or the like.
A major disadvantage of passive RFID is that a reader that is powerful enough can read the tags from a long distance, thereby leading to the potential for identity theft and fraud. Therefore, it would be highly advantageous to provide a circuit lock which can be easily and reproducibly activated to provide the desired electronic activity.
One solution is to secure contactless cards in a shielding sleeve when the card is not in use. While effective, this may not be practical, as the sleeves can be lost and/or damaged, and may interfere with the easy storage and retrieval of the cards from a wallet or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,762,471 to Tanner describes an embedded switch in a pre-determined location in the card which requires the user to press the switch to activate the card. The location of the switch is indicated to the user through graphics or other surface indications to provide a means to communicate the switch location. However, significant limitations exist with this approach as the switch activation force varies from card to card as a result of the card manufacturing process. The result of this variation is a range of activations which range from very difficult to use to switches which are too easy to activate and inadvertently activate when it is undesirable (i.e. in the users wallet). The inherent variability of existing switches is very difficult to control in mass production and results in manufacturing complexity and increased cost.
Another limitation of embedding switches in a fixed location is the need to indicate the location of the switch to the user. This requirement consumes valuable graphics space which could be used for other purposes such as marketing or additional security features. Graphics space on financial cards is very limited and valuable and embedding a circuit lock mechanism which does not require identification of a specific location is highly advantageous.
Switches embedded in electronic cards also tend to change slightly over time. This results from aging of the card body through both standard aging processes and use. The expected lifetime of an electronic financial card is typically three years. During this period, the plastics used in the card harden slightly and use of the card introduces stresses and compression forces which alter the activation force of the switches. Therefore, the switch activation force can become either too easy or too difficult to activate after the passage of time or repeated use. A circuit lock which has the flexibility to account for both manufacturing variability and the aging process is highly desirable.
The fundamental difference between the use of traditional switches of the prior art and the circuit lock contemplated in the claimed invention is the mode of activation. The mode of activation of the prior art is the downward tactile force exerted by the user in a specific point location on the card. Typically, this force is generated by compressing the switch in the specified location with the finger of the user when the card is being held in the hand. Sufficient force must be applied to close the contacts of the switch, for a sufficient time, to perform the desired action. As the activation force increases, the effort required to close the switch and perform the desired function increases as well. As a wide range of users are expected, this increased activation force makes it very difficult for certain users to easily use the electronic card of the prior art. As previously mentioned, the activation force of the switch cannot be made too easy as inadvertent activation is often highly undesirable, especially in the case of contactless financial cards where the entire purpose of the switch is to prevent fraudulent reading of the antenna.
It would also be beneficial to provide a circuit lock mechanism that is easily concealed within the card and that would not require graphic space on the card body that indicates the manner of actuating the circuit.
It would be very beneficial to provide a circuit that can be used with any of the variety of card manufacturing processes that are employed today. The most common process provides a card structure that is formed by assembling various sheets of suitable plastics and fusing the sheets together through the use of heat and pressure to form a continuous structure. This process is known as “hot lamination.” Alternatively, a process known in the art as “cold lamination” uses an adhesive, or combination of adhesives, to glue the various sheets together to form a continuous structure. Other manufacturing processes include reaction injection molding (“RIM”), warm lamination and casting to produce acceptable cards. The circuit lock of the claimed invention can be introduced into to card body constructions using all existing card manufacturing techniques without significant modification of the existing processes.
In addition, several standards exist for financial cards which have been adopted by the industry to specify dimensions, reliability, environmental performance and lifetime of financial cards. Most notably, the International Standardization Organization (ISO), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Information Technology Industry Council have published standards referred to as ISO/IEC 7810, 7816-1 and 10373-1. The circuit lock of the claimed invention is designed to meet these existing standards.
Embedding electronics into financial cards which meet the above mentioned standards has proven to create several challenges to the industry and has resulted in several modifications to the standard manufacturing processes summarized above. Most notably, the use of a so-called inlay has found commercial acceptance. In this process, a substructure, or inlay, is produced separately which houses the electrical components in a separate structure which forms the center of the financial card. This process produces a sheet whereby the electronics are placed into the structure according the desired positions and the structure is produced which is flat, free of surface defects, constructed of materials which will adhere to subsequent card layers and is of suitable thickness. This allows the card manufacturer to print the front and back graphics, add a magnetic stripe (if desired) as well as any other features and laminate the graphic layers to the inlay structure.
For example, a financial card which meets ISO standards has a nominal thickness of 0.030 inches which is composed of the various layers of films. In manufacturing processes which use the inlay approach, the inlay is typically manufactured to have a nominal thickness of 0.018 inches thereby leaving 0.012 inches available for the front and back graphic layers. Ideally, the circuit lock technology of the present invention would be composed of components which have thicknesses which allow for the manufacturing of an inlay to enable the use of this manufacturing process.
In view of the foregoing, what is needed is a circuit lock that meets all existing requirements, can be manufactured using known manufacturing techniques and that provides the security of a circuit lock to prevent identify theft and fraud.